Direct sales among fruit and vegetable producers

Csíkné Mácsai, Éva

Keywords: direct sales, fruit and vegetable market, market, choice of channel

Research through individual interviews conducted among agricultural producers leads us to conclude that farms involved in direct sales possess special production and work organisation characteristics in their agricultural businesses. Their choice of sales channel is influenced by diverse factors and producers are driven by different motivators in choosing this sales method. However, farms with farmers market show similarities in terms of production and work organization, deriving from the high labour force demand of direct sales caused partly by the quality and variety of products and partly by the extra time that is necessary for organizing direct sales.
Farms employing direct sales as a main sales channel are also characterised by a relatively small size. They mostly farm their own land and their activity is based on family work force. Moreover, they usually create a product range consciously to cater to the demands of their stable consumer base.
Farms employing direct market sales as a secondary sales channel regard it as a way of providing more than one source of income. They use this channel to achieve greater security of their sales activities as well as higher sales price compared to the prices of mass distribution channels.

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